Daillon, Switzerland, shooting suspect linked to Swiss Alps killings

Police investigate in the Swiss village of Daillon after a gunman killed three women and wounded two men on January 2, 2013.

French police are planning to interview the man suspected of killing three women and injuring two men on Wednesday night in Daillon, Switzerland, for connections to the Swiss Alps shooting last September.

Police say a 33-year-old Swiss man with a history of psychological problems opened fire late Wednesday in his tiny Swiss village.

To halt his rampage, Swiss police shot the man. He’s now recovering in hospital and will soon be able to speak.

Now, authorities in nearby Haute-Savoie, France, are hoping to interrogate the man after he regains consciousness, Agence France-Presse said.

“French police in Haute-Savoie, who are wondering about a possible link between this killing and unsolved homicides in the region in recent years, made this request,” a police representative told AFP.

Police also said he was trying to resolve a long-standing family dispute, and that they confiscated guns from him when he was admitted to hospital in 2005.

French authorities are still investigating the murder of a British-Iraqi family killed during a camping trip in September.

The two shooting sites are only about 100 miles apart, and police say there are some similarities.

Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, died after someone opened fire on their car. Their young daughters, ages 4 and 7, survived.

A passing French cyclist – 45-year-old Sylvian Mollier – was also shot and killed.

“We are looking for unbalanced people capable of extreme violence,” French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said, “people who have access to weapons – hunters, collectors, shooting club members – some with psychiatric problems.”